Jock Garden's speech to the 1922 Congress of the Comintern

Comrades,

Speaking on behalf of the Australian delegation, I may say
that
we affirm the theses as given by Comrade Lozovsky. Although the
Australian Communist Party is a small party, I believe it has found the
keynote to organisation, so far as the Anglo-Saxon movement is
concerned. The Communist Party in Australia has a membership of nearly
1000, and yet is able to direct just close on 400,000 workers — that
is, including 237,000 in the State of New South Wales — all organised
workers — and 110,000 organised workers in Brisbane, Queensland.

The Communist Party is based in Australia, on the nuclei
system.
Every union has its nuclei from 20 down to two. Every nucleus leader
must meet once a week with other nucleus leaders from the unions and
discuss the problems of their organisations and the problems of the
working class of Australia.

The Communist Party, along with the leaders of the nuclei,
formulate
the policy. On every burning question that affects the working class,
you will find that the nuclei leaders are the first in the field to
give direction to the working class how to meet the situation.

The Labour Council of New South Wales constitutes 120 unions.
Yet
the Communist Party has full control of the Executive. Out of the 12
members of the Executive eleven are members of the Communist Party, and
they direct these 120 unions, and the policy of each union.

We have the same basis of organisation in the Labour Party of
Australia as in the English Labour Party – that is, the party is based
on the Trade Union Movement; and we have the same difficulties
confronting us as the English Party has. When we quarrelled with the
Australian Labour Party in 1919, when we were beaten by six votes at
the conference, we isolated ourselves, took no part in politics
whatsoever, and directed all our energies to the industrial field.
Everybody set out for the organisation of the workers, to break down
craft barriers and make one union in every industry. The moment we
decided to make political activity [an important part of our trade
union activity] there was the ASP, SLP, and the Breakaway section of
the Labour Party to contend with. The ASP called a conference of all
militant workers of New South Wales to come together to form a
Communist Party. The trade union movement decided to be represented and
sent delegates.

In June 1921, the Labour Party put out a signal of distress.
They
called upon the workers to give all their aid, and we decided that we
would attend this conference called by the Labour Party. In Melbourne
in June 1921, the largest conference that has ever been held in
Australia assembled and there were present delegates representing
700,000 workers. What did we find? We found that we were able to change
the policy of the Labour Party. The Labour Party believed in the
maintenance of a White Australia, believed in nationalisation. We
changed the objective from nationalisation to socialisation of industry
by revolutionary political and industrial action. But the Labour Party
was not satisfied — they went aside from the conference and called a
conference of their own in October 1921. They deleted the words “by
revolutionary political and industrial action” and inserted the words
“by constitutional means.” Another congress was held in June of this
year, and the Trade Union movement, along with the Communist Party,
said to the Labour Party, that they would only endorse the policy of
the June Conference of 1921. The 1922 Conference endorsed the policy of
June 1921, and went further — they instructed the Labour Party to throw
open their doors for the affiliation of the Communist Party, with
freedom for the Communist Party for propaganda and organisation.

Again, when the capitalist attacks against the workers were
launched, we got all the workers together and, instead of allowing one
section to go down one after another, we said, “The working class of
Australia stand solid, speak with one voice and act together.” We
decided on these lines. The employers appealed to the Government. A
conference was decided upon. Some of the Unions objected. We authorised
delegates to go to the conference, and out of 18 delegates from
[across] Australia, the workers’ side found nine Communists from
different parts of Australia. And what were the results of that
conference? The employers left the conference. They said that all that
we were doing there was enunciating the doctrines of Lenin and Trotsky.
We were nothing more than in the pay of Russia, and we were not there
for the good or the benefit of the working class of Australia. We came
back with the propaganda message to the masses. The masses rallied
round our banner, and Australia is the first country in the world that
was able to withstand the offensive, and able to say, “No longer will
you reduce our wages, no longer will you tamper with our hours, no more
will you lengthen our hours. We will shorten our hours instead of
lengthening them.” It was the only country in the world which resisted
the capitalist offensive, because the masses rallied round the slogan
“Hands off wages and hours.” And the whole policy was directed by the
Communist Party in Australia — small in numbers, but strong in power
and influence.

The result of this militant activity has been the linking up
of the
union forces into one big union which is breaking down all craft
barriers. We believe that if the Anglo-Saxon countries — England,
America, Ireland, etc — develop the same lines of policy that we have
developed, it will be found that the Anglo-Saxon Communists will have
the power to direct the future policy of the masses in those countries.

Jock Garden's speech was originally printed in Report
of the Moscow Congress
published by Martin Lawrence, London, 1923. The session on the trade
union question was held on November 20-21, 1922. The chairman was
Comrade Neurath, and the speakers were Comrades Lozofsky, Clark,
Lansing, Kucher, Heckert, Sturm, Taska, Lauriden, Pavlik, Garden and
Rosmer. Jock Garden’s speech is on pages 280-282.